Begin your new year with a healthy dose of ethics! 

Documentation: Ethics and the Law 

Presenter: Sandra Morgenthal, M.Ed., LPCC-S, CCFC

3 CE hours for LPC, SW and MFT
3 Ethics hours for LPC, SW and MFT

Friday, January 11, 2019     1:00 - 4:30 PM

Knowing the legal and ethical requirements regarding documentation, understanding its purposes, and responding to requests for client records can be challenging but it doesn't have to be over-whelming to therapists.  This course is designed to help mental health professionals navigate ethics and the law regarding documentation.

In today's world of litigation, managed care, and time-management crunches, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists need a practical and meaningful approach to documentation.  There is important information to learn about why we should document, what we should document, and how to document and stay on top of it. 

The need for the record will be presented and the various reasons will be offered.  Clinicians will be given information that encourages the effort required to complete their documentation in a timely manner and, the time-management skills to do this in a reasonably short amount of time.

This course will cover the topics of the legal and ethical requirements for documentation, how long the records must be maintained, confidentiality and computer charting risks, and other important information.  Documentation is, perhaps, one of the greatest struggles for many mental health professionals, but the clinician can become more comfortable with it by developing a personal strategy for it.

Objectives:

• Recognize the legal and ethical considerations of documentation
• Understand the purposes of accurate record keeping
• Be familiar with some principled approaches to documentation
• Identify computer-based documentation risks
• Know how to respond to a subpoena or Court Order

Ohio CSWMFT Approved Provider #RCST091801

The Facilitator

Sandy Morgenthal is a Professional Clinical Counselor-Supervisor, a Clinically Certified Forensic Counselor, and a Registered Nurse, (PCC-S, CCFC, RN)  She has worked for twenty plus years in private practice in a community-based counseling center.  She has taught Masters' Level education classes as adjunct professor at both Xavier University and Cincinnati Christian University.  She has also taught continuing education classes in person at local, state, regional, and national levels.